{"id":488883,"date":"2026-02-25T04:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T04:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/488883\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T04:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T04:07:08","slug":"president-donald-trump-speech-today-fact-checking-state-of-the-union-or-sotu-2026-address","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/488883\/","title":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump speech today: Fact-checking State of the Union, or SOTU 2026, address"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON — From steep global tariffs that were recently struck down by the Supreme Court<\/a> to an overhaul of domestic immigration enforcement<\/a> and mounting tensions with Iran<\/a>, all eyes are on the president speaking before Congress at the Capitol.<\/p>\n

LIVE UPDATES: Latest from Pres. Trump’s State of the Union address<\/a><\/p>\n

Just over a year into his second term, President Donald Trump is delivering the State of the Union address\u00a0Tuesday, making his case for sweeping policy changes and executive actions that have come to define America’s current moment.<\/p>\n

An\u00a0ABC News\/Washington Post\/Ipsos poll released Sunday<\/a>\u00a0found that Trump’s overall disapproval rating is at 60% — a high for his second term.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With midterm elections in November looming, where control of Congress is at stake, Trump is expected to roll out several new measures to address affordability and tout his administration’s efforts to boost the U.S. economy.<\/p>\n

Throughout Trump’s remarks Tuesday night, ABC News is live fact-checking some of the president’s statements that may be exaggerated, need more context or are false.<\/p>\n

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.<\/p>\n

TRUMP CLAIM: “In the past nine months,\u00a0zero\u00a0illegal aliens have been admitted to the United States.”<\/p>\n

FACT CHECK: False, but crossings are down drastically<\/p>\n

After using executive authority to enforce a series of restrictive policy measures at the southern border, the Trump administration has severely decreased the number of people who crossed the border illegally, down from the record highs of the Biden administration.<\/p>\n

According to the data collected by Customs and Border Protection, in 2024, the last full year of Biden’s presidency, there were over 1.5 million encounters with migrants attempting to illegally cross the border. In 2025, the first full year of Trump’s second term in office, that number dropped to just under 28,000.<\/p>\n

Those low trends continue in 2026, but have never been at “zero” as the president has often suggested. The numbers suggest migrants are still attempting to cross the border, and it would be impossible to know if any had gone through unnoticed.<\/p>\n

-ABC News’ Luke Barr and Justin Fishel<\/p>\n

TRUMP CLAIM: “My\u00a0administration has driven core\u00a0inflation\u00a0down\u00a0to the lowest level in more than five years.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

FACT CHECK: Yes and No<\/p>\n

While it’s a positive development that inflation has come down in recent months, this hasn’t led to reduced prices across the board. The state of play is more complicated.<\/p>\n

The facts are that when Trump took office, inflation was at 3% and today it’s down to 2.4%<\/p>\n

The most recent inflation report was positive.<\/p>\n

But prices for everyday products for Americans are impacted by more than just inflation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The president’s tariffs have impacted the cost of fresh produce, beef and coffee. Ground coffee prices are up 34% in the past year. And even those increased costs aren’t all due to tariffs.<\/p>\n

Bureau of Labor and Statistics data also show Americans are paying more for energy (in many cases due to the data centers needed to power AI technology), up 6.3 percent from January 2025 to January 2026.<\/p>\n

-ABC News’ Zunaira Zaki<\/p>\n

TRUMP CLAIM: “In 12 months, I secured commitments for more than $18 trillion pouring in from all over the globe.”<\/p>\n

FACT CHECK:Lacks evidence\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is unclear where the $18 trillion number is coming from. It is a huge number. US GDP is $31 trillion. On their\u00a0website<\/a>, the White House says they have secured $9.6 trillion in domestic and foreign investments since Trump took office for his second term. A White House official confirmed that this figure includes “investments that have materialized or committed,” but they did not answer ABC’s questions about where the president’s $18 trillion number is coming from.<\/p>\n

The White House’s $9.6 trillion in investments also appears to be inflated, as other sums are included in their calculations. For example, the website lists a $1.2 trillion “foreign investment” from Qatar. But according to a White House\u00a0fact sheet<\/a>\u00a0distributed when the deal was made, the U.S. and Qatar had agreed to “generate an economic exchange worth at least $1.2 trillion” — not an explicit investment.<\/p>\n

-ABC NEWS’ Zunaira Zaki<\/p>\n

TRUMP CLAIM: “I took prescription drugs, a very big part of health care, from the highest price in the entire world to the lowest.”<\/p>\n

FACT CHECK: Needs more context<\/p>\n

Trump has pointed to lower prescription drug prices, citing discount arrangements such as his new website, which provides manufacturer discount prices, TrumpRX and direct negotiations with manufacturers. Some targeted reductions have occurred for people paying the cash price without any insurance, but overall drug prices in the United States remain high, and many patients still face significant out-of-pocket costs.<\/p>\n

The administration secured lower cash prices for certain high-profile medications, including weight-loss drugs such as Wegovy and Zepbound, largely for uninsured patients or those paying outside of traditional insurance coverage. Ben Jolley, the senior fellow for healthcare at the American Economic Liberties Project, noted that manufacturers were already under competitive and political pressure to reduce prices in that category as more products enter the market. In addition, those discounts applied to specific purchasing channels and did not necessarily translate into broad reductions in insured patients’ costs or overall list prices.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, some of the most substantial recent price cuts are the result of policies enacted before Trump returned to office. For example, at the start of this year, Bristol Myers Squibb reduced the price of the popular blood thinner Eliquis by more than 50%; Eli Lilly and their manufacturing partners dropped the price of diabetes drug Jardiance by 66%. Jolley said that those changes largely reflect the Medicare drug price negotiation.<\/p>\n

-ABC News’ Liz Neporent<\/p>\n

TRUMP CLAIM: “I want to stop all payments to big insurance companies and instead give that money directly to the people so they can buy their own health care.”<\/p>\n

FACT CHECK: Lacks evidence<\/p>\n

Last month, with tax breaks for the Affordable Care Act marketplace expiring and premiums increasing by 100% for some — Trump\u00a0unveiled his idea for a health care\u00a0<\/a>unveiled his idea for a health care plan<\/a>\u00a0that he claimed could replace the ACA. The so-called “The Great Healthcare Plan” proposes to shift government insurance subsidies directly to consumers and take advantage of its “most favored nation<\/a>” drug price initiative.<\/p>\n

During his speech, Trump said the health care plan would “stop all payments to big insurance\u00a0companies, and\u00a0instead give that money directly to the people so they can buy their own health care.”<\/p>\n

However, the\u00a0video message<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0one-page fact sheet<\/a>\u00a0posted by the White House were light on specifics about how much money would actually go directly to Americans, how much funding the plan would require or how the funds would be distributed. Some health policy experts\u00a0previously told ABC News<\/a>\u00a0that there’s no way to tell how impactful these ideas could be and if they will expand on the plans already in existence through the ACA.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the original ACA included cost-sharing reduction payments, which are federal reimbursements that compensate insurers for reducing out-of-pocket costs. The first Trump administration halted direct federal payments, but “The Great Healthcare Plan” appears to reinstate the payments to insurers.<\/p>\n

-ABC News’ Mary Kekatos<\/p>\n

TRUMP CLAIM: “In many cases, drug\u00a0lords,\u00a0murderers all over our country.\u00a0They’re\u00a0blocking the removal of these people out of our country,” Trump said of illegal immigrants and sanctuary cities.<\/p>\n

FACT CHECK: Most DHS detainees have no criminal record<\/p>\n

While the Trump administration has claimed the Department of Homeland Security is going after the “worst of the worst,” undocumented migrants, ICE data<\/a> show a significant portion of detainees at immigration detention facilities have not been convicted of a crime. According to the latest ICE data available, on Feb. 7, there were 68,289 people in detention. That’s down from over 70,000 just a few weeks prior, which immigrant advocacy organizations say was a record high.<\/p>\n

According to the data, about one fourth (or 26%) of detainees on Feb. 7 were considered “convicted criminals.” Another 26% had pending criminal charges. 47% or 32,364 detainees were classified as “other immigration violators,” people with no criminal convictions or pending charges.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In other words, 73% of detainees on Feb. 7 had no criminal convictions.<\/p>\n

-ABC News’ Armando Garcia and Jack Date<\/p>\n

TRUMP CLAIM: “The cheating is rampant in our elections, it’s rampant.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

FACT CHECK: False<\/p>\n

Trump has repeatedly alleged that undocumented immigrants have improperly influenced federal elections, but state voting data suggest that such instances are incredibly rare.<\/p>\n

In 2024, voter roll audits in states including Georgia, Ohio, and Iowa, leading up to the 2024 election, uncovered very few instances of noncitizen voting in federal elections. A comprehensive audit of Georgia’s voter rolls — which include 8.2 million registered voters — uncovered 20 noncitizens who registered to vote, including nine instances when noncitizens actually cast a ballot. A similar audit of Iowa’s 2.3 million voters revealed 87 instances where individuals cast ballots and later self-reported as noncitizens.<\/p>\n

According to research from the non-partisan nonprofit Center for Election Innovation & Research, allegations of sweeping and coordinated voter fraud generally arise from “misunderstandings, mischaracterizations, or outright fabrications about complex voter data,” and most instances of voting fraud are rare and swiftly prosecuted by authorities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

-ABC News’ Peter Charalambous<\/p>\n

TRUMP CLAIM: “Murders are down almost 100% inWashington, D.C.”<\/p>\n

FACT CHECK: False<\/p>\n

Although Trump has claimed Washington, D.C., has had no murders since the federal surge of law enforcement, Metropolitan Police Department data show that claim is false.<\/p>\n

During the 35-day federal surge period from Aug. 7 to Sept. 10, 2025, MPD recorded<\/a> eight homicides; however, murder was down from 17 homicides during the same dates in 2024, according to MPD’s surge report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The federal surge began well after violent crime and homicides were already declining in the District. At the end of 2024, the Justice Department said violent crime in Washington fell in 2024 to its lowest level in more than 30 years<\/a>. MPD year-end totals show homicides fell 32% from 187 in 2024 to 127 in 2025.<\/p>\n

Thus far, 2026 has also brought fewer killings. The city went about three weeks without a homicide to start 2026<\/a>, but the first homicide was recorded Jan. 21. As of Feb. 23, 2026, MPD lists nine homicides this year, compared with 26 at the same point in 2025, a 65% decline, but not zero<\/a>.<\/p>\n

-ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson<\/p>\n

TRUMP CLAIM: “We wiped it out and they\u00a0want\u00a0to start all over again,” Trump said of Iran’s nuclear program.<\/p>\n

FACT CHECK: Mostly false<\/p>\n

Iran’s nuclear program was severely damaged last June after the U.S. military struck three key nuclear sites with bunker-busting bombs. But, analysts and international inspectors say it was not entirely destroyed.<\/p>\n

Rafael Grossi, head of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, said in a recent interview with the French television network TFI that much of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium likely remains at those sites. Analysts also point to satellite imagery showing Iran rebuilding.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to a translation, Grossi said, “Some of it [the enriched uranium] may be less accessible, but the material is still there.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

The IAEA estimates some 972 pounds of highly enriched uranium remain unaccounted for.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trump has threatened to strike Iran if it doesn’t agree to new curbs on its program.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This weekend, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, who is leading negotiations with Iran on Trump’s behalf, suggested there was a newfound urgency.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“They’re probably a week away from having industrial-grade bomb-making material, and that’s really dangerous. So, [we] can’t have that,” said Witkoff in a pre-taped interview with Lara Trump that aired on Fox News on Saturday.<\/p>\n

-ABC News’ Anne Flaherty<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ABC News Internet Ventures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON — From steep global tariffs that were recently struck down by the Supreme Court to an overhaul…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[224494,9257,23,12,224493,11350,6377,3,224492,223710,3479,82478,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-488883","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-224494","9":"tag-abc-news","10":"tag-america","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-fact-check","13":"tag-fact-checking","14":"tag-national","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-sotu-2026","17":"tag-state-of-the-union-address","18":"tag-trump","19":"tag-trump-speech-today","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}